Ah, the ubiquitous miniature Bluetooth speaker. Forever a mainstay on the supermarket electronics aisle, yet never something taken seriously by audiophiles as a serious option for high-quality audio playback. They largely all suffer from the same issues: a lack of room filling sound, tinny highs/mids and laughable lows. The iClever IC-BTS02 Bluetooth speaker follows the same format as the many that have come before it, and professes to deliver decent quality sound thanks to its large 5W driver and resonance chamber. Will it live up to the hype?
What’s in the box?
The box isn’t really any bigger than the speaker so the bundled gear is pretty minimal. Expect to find a USB cable for charging and also a 3.5mm aux cable for wired device connections.
Tech Specs
Speaker: Full range Φ 45mm 2Ω
RMS: 5W
Bluetooth Chipset: CSR (v4.0 A2DP, AVRCP, HFE, HFP)
Sensitivity: 80db
S/N: ≥80db
Distortion: ≤0.3%
Frequency Response: 90Hz-18KHz
Battery: Built-in 500mAh Li-polymer
Size: 64.5 x 64.5 x 70.1mm
Weight: 261g
Design
Compact Bluetooth speakers aren’t usually anything much to look at, function over form and all that… The story here is a little different though. The cuboid shape itself is a little unusual and the high-gloss zinc alloy shell makes this unit look strangely elegant. I’m not much of a fan of the blue plastic ring that runs the circumference of the device, it breaks up the aesthetics unnecessarily and looks like it should light up – it doesn’t.
The Bluetooth logo on top of the speaker grille, on top of the device, looks awkward too. Wouldn’t this space be better used by extending the speaker grille? Otherwise, I quite like the look and feel of this device and at 261g it is certainly substantial. The metal casing does give it a high-quality feel.
On the front of the device you’ll find the iClever branding and a Bluetooth connection/call pick-up/drop button. The back of the device is where you’ll find the charging port and AUX input whilst all of the other controls are hidden away neatly in the base. On the base you’ve got the power switch, volume up/down, next/previous track and a play/pause button. Frustratingly the next/previous track buttons are the very same ones used for volume control making it easy to skip your favourite track when all you really wanted was to turn it up! A long hold on these buttons will adjust the volume, and a quick press the track.
